Pexels/RedditFriendships don’t always last forever, and that’s normal.

In this woman’s case, she realized one of her friends isn’t such a good friend, so she has slowly stopped inviting her for things. But now her friend is offended.

Is she being a bad friend for excluding her?

Let’s analyze the situation.

AITA for not inviting my friend to a show, knowing she will feel excluded

For context, my friend group is 7 women.

Some in the group are closer to certain people.

My friend (will call her Mary) has a lot of feelings of feeling left out, and not being included.

I know this from her S.O (significant other) telling us, as Mary does not talk about this with me or other friends from the group.

This put a tension between them.

For example, I went on a trip with my closest friend from the group (Sabrina) a few months ago.

We had found out through Mary’s SO that she was very upset that she wasn’t included.

Sabrina and I wanted to go to this show coming up.

We invited another pair from the group that thought would be interested.

So, now the 4 of us are going together.

It’s normal to want to hang out alone with certain friends, but Mary doesn’t agree.

However, Mary will know and she will feel very left out.

We know this, but there is no option to add a 5th person, and Mary doesn’t particularly like to see shows.

It’s just the idea of some of us being together without her, will make her upset.

Their friendship was always a bit complicated.

For additional context, I have known Mary the longest in the group.

I have always tried to be a good friend.

I invite her to things, message her, ask her how she’s doing, etc.

I noticed over the last few months that it does not feel reciprocated.

I have come to realize, Mary is not a good friend to me.

It’s a one-sided friendship.

She never asks how I am, never asks about important events in my life, and never invites me anywhere.

She is always the one being invited, and being asked.

I don’t think she does it on purpose, I think she’s just lazy in terms of keeping a relationship.

So, naturally, when making invitations for this show, it doesn’t make sense to invite Mary when she doesn’t care for shows, and has been a bad friend.

But now she’s wondering if she’s in the wrong for slowly cutting her off.

I’m starting to have feelings of doubt in the relationship.

Why am I putting time and energy when it’s not shown back to me?

I truly don’t know if this is just how some relationships work.

I wish we could be at a good point, but not sure how that could happen.

Mary has no interest in talking about stuff like this.

I truly want to know if there’s something I can do to help Mary get to a good place.

AITA?

I think it’s normal for friendships to fizzle.

But if someone is upset, talking could settle things once and for all.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about it.

A reader shares their thoughts.

A valid point.

Someone breaks it down.

A good question.

Another reader chimes in.

This person has a different take.

A forced friendship doesn’t feel good to anyone.

So maybe talking frankly about it would be the best course of action.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.